Mariners 1, Red Sox 0: King Felix lives up to the billing

Friday

Jun 29, 2012 at 2:10 AM

SEATTLE -- This is what a pitchers' duel looks like.

Tim Britton

SEATTLE -- This is what a pitchers' duel looks like.

It starts as an idea -- a pair of impressive, 11-pitch 1-2-3 innings. It proceeds through the middle innings, persisting through bloop hits here and a walk there on the back of mid-90s fastballs and devastating offspeed stuff. It enters the later innings, the tension building as it becomes clearer and clearer that one run will be all it takes.

The box score will read that the Mariners beat the Red Sox, 1-0, at Safeco Field, John Jaso's walkoff pinch-hit single off Scott Atchison the difference. But make no mistake: This was as much a one-man show as a baseball game could be, with Hernandez turning those 60 feet and six inches separating him from home plate into an artist's canvas.

"Boy, it was a great pitching duel," manager Bobby Valentine said. "We just couldn't score off Hernandez."

"That's the best we've seen him," Dustin Pedroia said of Hernandez. "He was unreal, man. His stuff was moving all over the place. He was pretty special tonight."

Hernandez and his five-pitch arsenal -- possessing that curveball and that slider just seems to be piling on, at times -- smirked at the offensive progress the Red Sox had shown last homestand over nine magnificent, often overwhelming innings.

From the minute he fell behind leadoff man Daniel Nava 3-0, Hernandez was in full control on the mound. He came back with three straight fastballs to catch Nava looking -- the first of a career-high-tying 13 strikeouts on the night.

He struck out every Red Sox hitter except Mike Aviles. Four strikeouts came on fastballs, four on sliders, three on changeups. He added on one each with a cutter and a curveball for good measure. For much of the night, hitting against Hernandez appeared more difficult than scaling Mount Rainier.

"He was King Felix -- as good as I've ever seen him," said Cody Ross, twice a strikeout victim.

Indeed, the "King's Court" cheering section in Safeco Field's left-field stands -- chanting "K" each time a Boston batter was down to his final strike -- received more action than the Mariner defenders. The Sox registered only five flyouts all night; on only one of them did the Seattle outfielder have to back up more than a stride or two.

There were two split-seconds where it appeared the Red Sox would score off Hernandez. The first was in the third, following back-to-back two-out singles by Aviles -- a bloop to right -- and Nava -- a bouncer through the right side. Pedroia lined Hernandez's 1-0 fastball into left-center, where it was ably tracked down by Franklin Gutierrez.

The second came in the ninth, with two on and one out. As the culmination of a tense nine-pitch at-bat, Adrian Gonzalez hit one deeper into the left-center gap, where Michael Saunders -- who replaced Gutierrez when he was hit in the head by an errant Morales pickoff throw -- made a fantastic running catch on the edge of the warning track.

"Definitely the wrong place to hit that ball," said Gonzalez.

In all, Hernandez allowed five hits in the shutout, with one walk compared to the 13 strikeouts. The last pitcher to strike out as many as 13 in a shutout of Boston was Ted Lilly in 2004.

The Mariners finally broke through in the ninth, sparked by Casper Wells' one-out double to left-center. After Justin Smoak was intentionally walked, Jaso hit Atchison's first-pitch cutter to right field. Ross' throw appeared in time, but Jarrod Saltalamacchia couldn't corral it at home.

"A couple of bad pitches that inning," said Atchison, who allowed just his seventh earned run of the season. "It doesn't take long when you make a couple of mistakes."

Morales was game for the challenge all night. For the first time in his career, he pitched seven innings, tossing 109 pitches -- the second-most he's ever thrown as a professional.

Morales held the Mariners hitless through three before Gutierrez smoked a single up the middle -- one of the only hard-hit balls by either side all night. He allowed only three hits, with seven strikeouts and two walks.

"That's what's frustrating about tonight," said Pedroia. "He throws the ball like that and we can't get him one run.... We've got to be better."

One cannot dismiss Morales' success as the product of facing one of the worst offenses in the major leagues. In three starts now, the left-hander has yielded four earned runs on 14 hits in 18 innings. He has struck out 24 and walked three. His WHIP is below one, his FIP barely above it.